2016 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
The Fifteenth Legislative Assembly Election was held on 16 May 2016 for the 232 seats (except Thanjavur and Aravakurichi for which held on 26 October 2016) of the Legislative Assembly in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The AIADMK under J. Jayalalithaa won the elections and became the first ruling party to be re-elected in Tamil Nadu since 1984, though with a simple majority.[1] The DMK won half of the seats it contested but its allies performed poorly; notably, the Indian National Congress won 16% of the seats they contested, and the alliance lost due to its poor performance.[2][3][4][5] The votes were counted on 19 May 2016.[6] In the previous election in 2011, AIADMK, under the leadership of Jayalalithaa, won a thumping majority and formed the government, while DMDK chief Vijayakanth served as the Leader of Opposition until January 2016. This was the last election that J. Jayalalithaa and M. Karunanidhi contested, as they both died later that year and 2018 respectively.
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All 234 elected seats in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
118 seats needed for a majority
74.81%
(
3.48%)
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Demographics[edit]
At the 2011 India census, Tamil Nadu had a population of 7,21,47,030. A total of 1,44,38,445 people constituting 20.01% of the total population belonged to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 7,94,697 people constituting 1.10% of the population belonged to Scheduled tribes (ST).[12][13][14] Other Backward Classes (OBCs) form 68% of the population.[15] As per the religious census of 2011, Tamil Nadu had 87.6% Hindus, 5.9% Muslims, 6.1% Christians, 0.1% Jains and 0.3% following other religions or no religion.[16]
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Candidates[edit]
On 4 April, AIADMK released its candidate list for Tamil Nadu.[28] On 14 April, DMK released its candidate list for Tamil Nadu.[29]
Gopi Shankar Madurai, a 25 years old gender activist made a bid to contest as one of the youngest candidates in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election and also the first openly Intersex & Genderqueer person to do so. Gopi contested on the ticket of newly launched outfit Anaithu Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) for Madurai North. He secured 14th place out of 21 candidates.[30][31][32][33]
Campaign to vote[edit]
To ensure that the electorate exercise their right to vote, the Election Commission of India (ECI) launched their own campaign in Tamil Nadu. The Chief Electoral Officer for the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, Rajesh Lakhoni, utilised social media platforms by creating memes and tweets themed around films, which have a huge reach in Tamil Nadu. Additionally, the Election Commission also recruited media personalities Suriya, Ashwin and Karthik, whose campaigning videos were filmed and shared on social media.[21] The Election Commission also partnered with Twitter, for the first time in India, to boost its #TN100Percent hashtag campaign. Twitter users who have made use of the hashtag will be reminded to vote on the day of voting.[22] Twitter and Facebook collaborated with ECI in its awareness campaign on striving for 100 per cent voting in the polls.[23][24]
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Manifestos[edit]
DMK released its election manifesto on 10 April 2016.[34][35] Bharatiya Janata Party released its election manifesto on 21 April 2016.[36] On 23 March 2016, Naam Tamilar Katchi published its 316-page election manifesto 2016, a complete plan to develop Tamil Nadu.[37][38] Tamil Nadu Congress Committee released its election manifesto on 27 April 2016.[39] Pattali Makkal Katchi released its draft election manifesto on 15 September 2015 and final election manifesto on 15 April 2016.[40] AIADMK released its election manifesto on 5 May 2016.[41] [42]
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Voter Turnout[edit]
Voter turnout for the 232 constituencies on 16 May was 74.81%.[43] Parts of Tamil Nadu received heavy rain on the polling day, but it did not deter voters from turning out to cast their votes. While the highest voter turn out was in Dharmapuri constituency recording 85% while the lowest voter turnout was in the capital of Tamil Nadu, Chennai recording 55%. Male voter turnout was 74.15% and female voter turnout was 74.33%.[44][45]